 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Is Ravindra Jadeja new bad boy of Indian cricket?
Ravindra Jadeja has built a quite a reputation for himself in his short time in the Indian squad. And in no way it is a good one.
The Saurashtra all-rounder, who broke into the squad last year for the Sri Lanka tour, is, off late, in the news more for off-field controversies than his on-field contributions.
This former Rajasthan Royals' player first got into trouble when he was slapped with a one-year ban by the Indian Premier League's governing council in March. He was penalised for reportedly not signing a contract renewal with the Royals and instead attempting to negotiate higher wages with another team -- Mumbai Indians.
Fresh trouble came his way on Tuesday, when the Board of Control for Cricket in India slapped him and five other Indian cricketers, including Yuvraj Singh, Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan, Rohit Sharma and Piyush Chawla, a show cause notice for their alleged involvement in a pub brawl in St Lucia following India's humiliating exit from Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies.
Jadeja let the team down big time at WT20
Dhoni had reposed a lot of faith in the youngster, but he let the team down big time at the Twenty20 World Cup. The left-armer turned out to be a big disaster, both with the bat and ball. Added to that, he dropped a couple of important catches and was even by hit for six consecutive sixes by Australia's David Warner and Shane Watson, who slammed three each in different overs.
Jadeja started the tournament with impressive figures of one for 15 in four overs against minnows Afghanistan. But when the big teams came along, his bowling fell apart as he was smashed for 102 runs in the eight overs he sent down. However, to everyone's amazement, Dhoni persisted with him at the cost of a seamer, which ultimately provided to be one of the biggest flaws of his captaincy in the tournament.
According to reports, Jadeja showed no remorse for his disastrous showing in the tournament and celebrated in a pub after the team's last match.
As team manager Ranjib Biswal informed the BCCI, he was among the six guys involved in the brawl with fans. All, according to reports, had broken the team's curfew of 9.30 pm and ventured out late in the night.
The BCCI has asked Jadeja and others to show cause. But should there be sterner against Jadeja, who is turning out to be the new bad boy of Indian cricket?